(DETROIT FREE PRESS) - Not sure what this says about Jim Leyland, but it seems that a certain segment of the Detroit Tigers fan base is a bit more interested in the team now.

New manager Brad Ausmus is one fine-looking dude, according to a bevy of heart-fluttering tweets posted since his hiring Sunday.

There's even already a Twitter account with the handle @sexyausmus. Lord knows what will come out of that.

To the delight of these folks, we figure, a shirtless photo of Ausmus has popped up online since his hiring. It was taken for the cover of a Houston Chronicle health magazine in 2008, when Ausmus was a member of the Astros.

"He surfs in California during the off-season, so we shot him shirtless, wet hair, yellow surfboard, blue sky, pretty-Men's Health-ish," photographer Robert Seale told the American Society of Media Photographers. "We got tons of calls asking for prints -- and it was pretty much a 50/50 response from women and men. He was teased mercilessly in the Astros locker room, and he probably hates me now."

Before we go any further, we should note that Ausmus has a wife, Liz, and two teenage daughters. So cool your jets.

And for what it's worth, yahoo.com ranked the MLB general managers in terms of sexiness last year, with our guy Dave Dombrowski coming in at No. 6. We couldn't find any similar ranking of managers, but Detroit might have the favorite.